Our daily adventure around the world

🇸🇪 The largest deposit of rare earth elements in European history has been discovered in Sweden. Yesterday, Swedish state-owned mining company LKAB announced the discovery of a deposit of rare earth oxides – from which rare earth elements are extracted – exceeding 1.1 million tons. Rare earth elements are used in a wide range of products, including solar panels, EV batteries/motors, smartphone touchscreens, and wind turbines. No rare earth elements are currently mined in Europe, with China providing ~98% of the EU’s entire supply (some 17,600 tons/year).

☢️ The UN is deploying international inspectors to all of Ukraine’s nuclear plants, per the WSJ. The head of the UN’s atomic energy agency will visit the country next week to post inspectors at four Ukrainian-controlled nuclear plants, where they’ll monitor safety and ensure materials aren’t diverted to military use amid the threat of a new Russian offensive. Fun fact that's actually pretty morbid: Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine is the first conflict in history to see the capture, occupation, and attempted theft of nuclear-power plants, the Journal reports.

🌊🌡️ The amount of heat energy contained in the top layer of the world’s oceans is now at record levels. That’s according to a report published yesterday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which found the world’s oceans absorbed 9 zetajoules of energy in 2022. For context, the entire globe consumes roughly one-half of a zetajoule each year. Previous research from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change found more than 93% of the excess heat energy from climate change is absorbed by the world’s oceans.